The notice, which she has 14 days to reply to, is for Chitrakala to explain on some discrepancies in the accounts of MIED, which runs the party’s Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) in Semeling, Kedah through a subsidiary company, MIED Capital Sdn Bhd.

“Yes, I received the notice a few days ago and am currently preparing a letter to explain the whole accounts procedure. Actually this is not the first time he (Samy Vellu) has given me such a notice.

“He issued about seven notices against me dated 31 Dec 2008 and at that time I was only given a day to reply. I replied to all the seven notices on 2 Jan. This second round is only one notice, which I received on 29 Jan. I will reply this notice too within 14 days,” she told Bernama, when contacted here today.

Breaking her silence since the fiasco erupted late December, Chitrakala said after she replied the seven show cause notices, she was “advised” to go on leave by Samy Vellu.

When asked whether the show cause notices were pertaining to MIED accounts, she said it was not only on the book-keeping of the MIED but also “the whole thing”.

“I think he (Samy Vellu) wants me out of MIED. I have been with the MIED for 14 years and now he is looking for things to kick me out. It is like a fault-finding mission,” she added.

She said that there was nothing for her to hide as everything which she undertook during her tenure as MIED CEO was based on instructions of Samy Vellu, who is chairperson of MIED.

MIED, the party’s education arm, has been mired in controversy after it was found that the cost of AIMST, which opened its doors two years ago, had ballooned from an early estimate of RM230 million to over RM500 million.

Late last month, Tan Sri M Mahalingam, a signatory of MIED cheques, was removed as MIC treasurer-general by Samy Vellu, who said the move was part of MIC’s rebranding exercise and that there was a need to inject new blood into the party.

Chitrakala Vasu has been on leave since.

The party top echelon had, last month, appointed a three-member independent panel of lawyers to investigate the financial woes of the MIED and the reason for the increase in costs.

The panel was also entrusted with the task of reviewing all MIED contracts given out for the construction and maintenance of AIMST.

There had been news reports that some irregularities had taken place with regard to the awarding of the contracts, especially those which involved landscaping and providing of security.

Last week the saga took an unexpected turn after MIC vice-president and MIED director Datuk S Sothinathan lodged two police reports over missing files belonging to MIED.

The reports, lodged at the Dang Wangi police station and the Sentul district police headquarters, alleged that files pertaining to the AIMST contracts were missing from the party headquarters in Jalan Rahmat, off Jalan Ipoh, here. — Bernama